The names of three were William J. Bailey, George Gay, and John Turner. The last-named, with his native wife, was the first to reach the Mission, where he landed from a raft, induced by the welcome sight of cattle. They were kindly cared for by the missionaries, while all waited with painful anxiety for the appearance of any others who might have escaped. After the lapse of several days Gay and Bailey were discovered standing on the bank across the river from the Mission. Perceiving signs of civilization, Bailey plunged in and struck for the opposite shore; but the current being strong, and the swimmer having been badly wounded and without food, save roots, for fifteen days, he would have perished had not his companion saved him. While the two were battling with the water, a canoe was sent to their rescue. Bailey was afterward placed in a hospital at Fort Vancouver. The fourth man failed to discover the settlements, and struggled on the whole distance to the Multnomah River, arriving at Fort William more dead than alive.[1]
- ↑ Townsend, who was at Fort Vancouver when Bailey arrived, describes his appearance as frightful, and his sufferings as excruciating. He was literally covered with wounds. One upon the lower part of the face entered the upper lip just below the nose, cutting entirely through both the upper and the lower jaws and chin, and passing deep into the side of the neck, narrowly missing the jugular vein. Not being able, in his extreme anguish, to adjust the parts, but only to bind them with a handkerchief, in healing the face was left badly distorted. Nar., 229; Lee and Frost's Or., 131–2. Bailey was an English surgeon of good parentage, but had led a life of dissipation, to break him off from which his mother removed to the United States. Leaving his new home, his mother and sisters, he shipped as a common sailor coming in that capacity to California, where for several years he led a roving life. On recovering from his wounds he joined the Willamette settlement, and his medical and surgical acquirements coming to the notice of the missionaries, he was encouraged in his practice. He thus became an attaché of the Mission, married an estimable lady who came to Oregon as a teacher—Miss Margaret Smith—settled on a farm, and became one of the foremost men of Oregon colonial times. See White's Ten Years in Or., 111–15; Wilkes' Nar., U.S. Explr. Ex., iv. 387. Bailey died at Champoeg, February 5, 1876, aged about 70. Salem
flict a salutary punishment upon the Rogue River people, as Wilkes was told by him. 'I questioned him relative to the stories respecting the shooting of Indians on the route to and from California, and he told me they had no battles, but said it was necessary to keep them always at a distance. On my repeating the question, whether the report we had heard of several being killed during the late expedition were true, he, Frenchman-like, shrugged his shoulders, and answered: "Ah, Monsieur, ils sont des mauvais gens; il faut en prendre garde et tirer sur eux quelquefois." Wilkes Nar., U. S. Explr. Ex., v. 152.
